Acceptable Breaks From Reality

A Willing Suspension of Disbelief is a must for almost any work of fiction. There are certain elements of story or gameplay where realism would simply make a work tedious, difficult, or confusing for the audience. Thus there are ways in which works will be blatantly, unabashedly unrealistic, and nobody really minds. See the Rule of Cool.

It's possible for these to become unacceptable, when the abstraction gets in the way of enjoying the work. On the flip side, it's possible to get so accustomed to a particular break from reality that people stop realizing it's unrealistic.

Compare Necessary Weasel.

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Forms of Acceptable Breaks From Reality include

• Aliens Speaking English
  And with perfect American/English/Australian/wherever-the-work-was-made accents too!
• Already Undone for You
  Someone already got through this trap-laden dungeon to wait for you, so why are the traps still all there? It wouldn't be fun, otherwise!
• All in a Row
  Because they'd get stuck behind a table sometimes. It'd be annoying depending on whether or not you're teleported to a battlefield or fight enemies wherever you stand and your character's stuck.
• All Swords Are the Same
  Because designing a wide variety of weapons, as well as unique battle animations for every one of them, is hard.
• Arbitrary Gun Power
  Video game guns damage your life bar, not your organs. Accurate simulations of the physics and biology of bullet wounds are prohibitive for modern consumer-grade computer hardware, especially when fighting cannon fodder.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit
  Arbitrary requirement that stops you from having too many characters in a party or unit.
  • Lazy Backup
    Yes, the other fifteen members of the party could carry on the fight should the frontline trio fall, but that would make the battle too easy.
• Arbitrary Maximum Range
  There is no "maximum range" for weapons in space - but that wouldn't make for gripping space battles and, if it's video games, system performance will take a big hit if it has to track that many objects that are not in the play field anymore.
• Artificial Gravity
  Virtually all Sci Fi space ships have some form of artificial gravity. How is rarely explained.
• Art Major Biology
  No, the work doesn't follow actual biology, but if it did, we wouldn't have a very good story.
• Art Major Physics
  No, the work doesn't follow actual physics, but if it did, we wouldn't have a very good story.
• Artistic License Law
  To the extent that litigation is dramatic, almost none of it happens in the courtroom. But the way it actually plays out, i.e. trading written motions over several months, does not exactly make for gripping television.
  • Artistic License Indexes
    Yes, some of these are cases where the creators Did Not Do the Research. Sometimes, though, they did, but if it were totally realistic there would be no drama.
• Authority Equals Asskicking
  The higher a character is in his hierarchy, the better he is in a fight.
• Automaton Horses
  Horses never have to be watered, fed, or rested in video games, and often not in other media.
• Bag of Sharing
  Everyone in the team can access the same inventory even when they're apart, because forcing the player to micromanage the inventory would be too obnoxious.
• Back Seats Are Just for Show
  Cars with 2 doors but four seats can't be used to carry more than two people.
• Benevolent Architecture
  Architecture and geography seem to be designed for that genre and your character's abilities.
• Big Damn Fire Exit
  There will always be an escape route. If the building's on fire (or even exploding) there will be one non-burning pathway. If there isn't, it will conspire to collapse in such a way as to create one as a character approaches a dead end.
• Blatant Item Placement
  What's a medkit doing here anyway?
• Bottomless Bladder
  Fictional characters don't have to do mundane things like eat, sleep, or pee unless the story dictates it.
• Bottomless Magazines
  You get unlimited shots, because who wants to stop the action to reload?
• Bulletproof Human Shield
  Having the Action Hero survive gunfire by hiding behind a Mook might not be realistic, but it's definitely cool.
• Cap
  A maximum number a game puts on numeric amounts, ranging from statistics to score to damage points.
• Chaos Architecture
  When geography of countries and buildings in sequels do not resemble their previous incarnations.
• Command and Conquer Economy
  A game in which nothing gets built unless the player orders it to.
• Commonplace Rare
  An object that either should be easily affordable or else found in everyone's home becomes a priceless artefact acquired at great pains.
• Competitive Balance
  In Racing or Fighting Games, ensuring that each character is balanced enough to be used somewhat effectively against every other character.
• Concealment Equals Cover
  Characters can hide behind anything and be protected from projectiles, even if they could, in theory, penetrate whatever is being used for cover.
• Conspicuously Selective Perception
  In sneaking games, enemies will be very attentive to your noises but not to any others.
• Continue Your Mission, Dammit!
  Avoids a Timed Mission by only having everyone act like you're in a hurry.
• Convection, Schmonvection
  A character can get as close as they want to lava - as long as they aren't actually touching it, they'll be perfectly fine.
• Convenient Weakness Placement
  For some reason, the one thing that can kill a villain is smack in the middle of his lair and/or fighting arena.
• Cooldown
  Powers and abilities have arbitrary, fixed recovery periods that are usually independent of each other.
• Critical Encumbrance Failure
  You're perfectly fine with 87 pounds of weight, but add one more item and you suddenly can't move.
• Critical Existence Failure
  You're perfectly fine with 1 Hit Point left or otherwise being just one step away from death, but lose the last bit of health and you die instantly.
• Easy Communication
  When you give orders to your troops, they are transmitted instantly to every soldier.
• Easy Logistics
  You don't need to worry about feeding your troops or keeping up supplies - that all happens automatically.
• An Economy Is You
  All stores in a videogame city are centered around selling things you in particular will need.
• Enough to Go Around
  In MMORPGs, a quest item is supposedly "unique", yet there's one for every player of the game.
• Eternal Equinox
  Day and night are always the exact same length, regardless of the season.
• Event Driven Clock
  In-universe time and calendar is based around the hero's actions and progress rather than a real-time clock.
• Every Bullet Is a Tracer
  You will be able to see the path of bullets, to assist in aiming or following the action.
• Everything Fades
  Things will vanish or otherwise no longer be seen when a character is done with them (killed enemies, broken chairs, etc.).
• Explosions in Space
  Should be impossible, but...
• Firewood Resources
  In Real Time Strategy games, wood is always shown in bundles.
• Flash of Pain
  Enemies flash colours when hit.
• Floating Platforms
  Because it's much easier than building proper structural supports.
• Fourth Wall
  One many people gloss over, but still there. In any play, characters will always face each other so both faces can be seen from one particular wall. And though there are assorted important doors, windows, etc. on all three walls, that fourth one never has any important features, despite the fact that everyone keeps standing facing it.
• Free-Range Children
  Children have more freedom in the work than in real life.
• Friendly Fireproof
  The protagonist's attacks will never damage their friends, and enemy attacks won't damage their allies, unless done specifically that way.
• Gameplay-Guided Amnesia
  Because the character of a game knows things the player doesn't, sometimes the character gets amnesia to excuse the explanation to the player.
• Gateless Ghetto
  You're dumped in a small part of a city walled off from the rest of it, so you can't explore what hasn't been programmed.
• Global Currency
  The same money is used across the entire world (spanning multiples countries and/or times).
• Gold-Silver-Copper Standard
  Because who honestly wants to do realistically calculate the values of copper coins to golden coins, etc?
• Guns in Church
  Nobody bats an eye if you bring your Infinity+1 Sword or BFG to a private audience with an important person. If they do, it is always a trap.
• Heal Thyself
  When you pick up a medkit or use a potion, you get healed instantly - no medicine application, no bandaids, no waiting.
  • Hyperactive Metabolism
    Food and sleep will instantly heal you.
• Hollywood Darkness
  When you want to see that it's dark, but the audience still wants to see in the dark.
• Hollywood Hacking
  Because real hacking is actually quite boring, would become worthless after the technology is exposed, plus would be a bit boring in a Video Game.
• Hollywood Psych
  Because the fact the main character would end up too damaged and insane to ever live a normal life after the events of the average videogame isn't a very happy ending.
• Hyperspace Arsenal
  In games, you can carry an absolutely enormous amount of stuff; who knows where you actually keep it.
• Improbable Power Discrepancy
  Enemies in RPGs are given statistics based on how powerful you are expected to be at that point, not how strong that enemy would be based on common sense.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests
  Where did they come from? Who put them there? Why does nobody else ever open them?
• Infinite Flashlight
  A flashlight which never runs out of batteries or needs to be recharged, except if the plot demands...or if it's a gameplay mechanic.
• Informed Equipment
  Game characters' equipment won't show up visually; they may be wearing Diamond Armor, but it looks like the same old Stripperiffic costume to me...
• Insecurity Camera
  You can easily just blow up security cameras or otherwise make them useless and nobody will be alarmed by it. Unless there's a Dangerously Genre Savvy supervisor present, at best it will be dismissed as a temporary glitch to not worry about.
• Instant 180 Degree Turn
  Characters can turn around in an instant.
• Instant Home Delivery
  When you buy something, it shows up instantly, or at least much faster than in Real Life.
• Instant Sedation
  Because we don't have 15 minutes of valuable airtime to waste watching a tranquilizer go into effect.
• Instant Win Condition
  When you clear a game stage, all the troubles, death traps, remaining enemies etc. are completely ignored, because You Won!
• In Vehicle Invulnerability
  Driver doesn't die or get injured when a car crashes without explosion.
• Iron Butt Monkey
  No matter how much damage he suffers, he just keeps coming back!
• Just Add Water
  Items can generally be created by just sticking two or three things together.
• Justified Extra Lives
  An in-game explanation for why you can keep coming back from the dead.
• Justified Tutorial
  A tutorial that makes sense in context.
• The Kids Are American
  A work takes place in a foreign land, and the children have American accents.
• Law of Cartographical Elegance
  Land masses will never cross the edge of a world map.
• Leaked Experience
  When fighting in RPGs, characters not in the active party will get some percentage of the experience that the active party gets to prevent Can't Catch Up situations.
• Limited Sound Effects
  Yay for programmer laziness!
• Loud of War
  Playing music REALLY LOUD at someone won't cause hearing damage.
• Mercy Invincibility
  Because being hit again and again without being able to retaliate is really irritating.
• Money Spider
  Monsters carry money. When you beat the monster, you get the money.
• Muzzle Flashlight
  You have no flashlight, so just start blindly firing your weapons and follow the muzzle flash!
• Never Recycle a Building
  Don't worry about zoning laws, the abandoned building is just waiting for you to use it.
• News Travels Fast
  As soon as something important happens in the plot, everyone in the world will know about it.
• No Cure for Evil
  A lot of enemies can't heal, especially since this would get very annoying for some particularly hard enemies.
• No Periods, Period
  Nobody ever menstruates.
• No Recycling
  In strategy games, you can't scavenge debris for usable materials.
• Nobody Poops
  At least not onscreen.
• Nominal Importance
  Only people that are relevant to the plot or a Sidequest will be blessed with names. Everyone else will be Nameless Narrative or be referred to with generic or descriptive titles.
• No Arc in Archery
  For balance purposes mostly.
• No Stat Atrophy
  Once you raise a stat, it will never go down again because it would get annoying.
• NPC Amnesia
  In a game Dialogue Tree, people will not remember when you pick the "wrong" choice; you'll just get to choose again.
• Olympic Swimmer
  If (or once) you know how to swim, you will do it perfectly and for as long as you like.
• Olympus Mons
  The game allows the player to capture and control creatures that a preteen hero has absolutely no business owning.
• One Bullet Clips
  In a game, if you fire one bullet and reload, you will be shown reloading a full magazine but will still only have reloaded one bullet.
• One Size Fits All
  Clothing and armour can be worn by anyone, regardless of its source or the wearer's size or sex.
• One True Faith
  A work of Science Fiction or Fantasy has only one religion (The Church) in it; furthermore, there are never any factions of it, or different interpretations of its belief.
• Optional Traffic Laws
  Drivers can safely ignore all the rules of the road, often with no more consequence than, at worst, a bystander making a rude hand gesture and/or being profane towards the driver.
• Painfully-Slow Projectile
  Bullets are slow enough to Dodge the Bullet. Especially common in Platform Game and Shoot'Em Up games.
• Party in My Pocket
  Sometimes from a developmental point of view since showing all 3-8+ party members on-screen at all times means more models to program at once.
• Pamphlet Shelf
  Whenever you see a bookshelf, there will never be more than one book (and often one line) that you can read; so that you don't spend an hour looking for something relevant.
• Plot-Powered Stamina
  You do not have to break off the action to rest, eat, or sleep in-world, though your characters may abruptly decide to do so in a cutscene.
• Power Equals Rarity
  The more powerful an item, monster, or ability/spell is, the harder it is to find.
• Puzzle Reset
  In a game, if you exit and re-enter the room, any puzzle will reset itself.
• The Reveal
  Not only for other characters to catch up to the plot, but also so the Viewer is on the same page as the characters. Sometimes literally.
• Reward From Nowhere
  A seemingly arbitrary prize for an in-universe action, with no explanation as to who gives out the prize or why.
• Ribcage Stomach
  The inside of a creature's stomach looks like the inside of the entire creature lacking organs.
• Ridiculously-Fast Construction
  All buildings can be produced and military units trained in a ridiculously short amount of time.
• Risk Style Map
  A war or other contest involves struggles for regions which are wholly in the possession of one side or the other, are treated as "spaces" for movement, and can't be divided up in any way.
• Rule of Funny
  Some stuff that's Played for Laughs is funny only because it's not real, namely Video Game Cruelty Potential or Comedic Sociopathy. In Real Life? Dude, Not Funny.
• Selective Gravity
  Gravity is only applied to some things; others are totally immune.
• Short-Range Long-Range Weapon
  The inability of a long-range weapon user, especially a villain, to use said weapon at long range.
• Skill Point Reset
  A way to completely forget everything you knew about your current job and learn everything from scratch again.
• Soft Water
  A fall from any height at all can be rendered harmless or merely incapacitating if, at the end of the fall, the character meets a body of water.
• Sole Entertainment Option
  In the entire in-work world, there is only one kind of entertainment or only one city where you can find it.
• Sound-Coded for Your Convenience
  In video games, many things have distinctive sounds, to the point where you can be tipped off by what's happening just by listening for them.
• Space Compression
  Where an environment is blatantly not to scale so you don't spend an entire day just walking to the next city.
• Statistically Speaking
  In Video Games, no matter how high your strength, speed, etc. goes, you still will not be able to, for example, lift that tree in your way.
• Steel Ear Drums
  Nobody is ever bothered by extremely loud noises and explosions and things, unless it serves the plot.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills
  Video Game characters can breathe underwater for infinite amounts of time.
• Surprisingly Functional Toys
  When a Video Game character is shrunk and encounters a recognizable object scaled to the character's new size, said object will retain the function and properties scale of its original size.
• Suspiciously Small Army
  Micromanaging or representing a military force on the scale of most modern armed forces would likely destroy either one's patience or one's video card.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity
  When the game gives you a whole whack of healing items and ammo, you're about to fight a nasty boss battle.
• Take Your Time
  The villain won't put his dastardly plan into motion until you get there, no matter how long you spent inbreeding fluffy ostriches in the meantime. Wouldn't be fair to just realistically railroad you.
• Tech Tree
  Instead on anything historically accurate, there is a tree of inventions that you use Research Points to buy your way through, so each tech has an oft-rigid set of prerequisite techs that don't always make sense.
• Three Round Deathmatch
  Best of three wins in a Fighting Game. You start again with full health.
• Thriving Ghost Town
  Cities and towns are much, much smaller than they should be for sustainability.
• Third-Person Flashback
  Normally, people do not see themselves in their own visual recall, unless some mirror was there showing themselves. Can be used very effecively.
• Took a Shortcut
  You spent all that time going through the dungeon and beating all the puzzles, so how the heck did these guys get here first?
• Trauma Inn
  Sleeping at an inn is guaranteed to instantly cure all wounds and even death!
• 24-Hour Armor
  You wear your armor everywhere. You eat with it, you sleep with it, you take baths in it.
• Units Not to Scale
  In Real Time Strategy games, infantrymen are ridiculously large when compared to vehicles and buildings.
• Universal Driver's License
  A character can drive any vehicle they come across, without any training.
• Universal Poison
  There is only one type of poison, and generally one type of antidote for it. Saves a spot in the inventory.
• Very-High-Velocity Rounds
  You've slowed down time, and while enemy bullets will crawl like molasses, yours go at normal speed.
• Videogame Dashing
  Lunging forward or back-stepping has the same effect as firing an invisible jet pack.
• Video Game Geography
  The world map is a toroid. Distances aren't quite right. But hey - it's a video game!
• Video Game Stealing
  A thief can pick the pockets of a giant direwolf in the middle of an all-out brawl, and come away with an eight-foot claymore.
• Video Game Time
  Fake use of a time scale means that empires rise and fall in the time it takes to take the trash out.
• Wallet of Holding
  Where you can collect millions of gold coins and not have your pants fall down.
• We Buy Anything
  Want to sell that suit of armor at a grocery store? They'll take it!
• You All Look Familiar
  There are only a few NPC models or actors; you'll see them repeated over and over again.
• You Call That a Wound?
  When a special character is incapable of dying or being seriously injured in a battle.
• You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up Again
  In Video Games, when you're knocked down, you can't be damaged until you get back up, because it's quite annoying when it's averted.